Weekly News Update

Buffalo Stampede a BIG Success!

This year’s Buffalo Stampede was the absolutely BEST in anyone’s personal memory and most of us think it was the absolutely best in the event’s history.

From the entrant’s perspective, there were great goodies and wonderful post-run ambience and support. The course was perfectly marked and measured, and the monitors, aid stations and police support was without fault.

The weather, usually decent to good, was outstanding with an almost ideal morning temperature, only the slightest of breezes for optimal cooling, and later day temperatures still in the comfortable range for relaxing after the run.

Wow!

And the club’s perspective on the event, notes virtually no complaints or negative comments from the entrants, and the numbers were UP, UP, UP from any previous year:

From Pete Zinsli’s Database:

1998-444
1999-520
2000-584
2001-535
2002-406
2003-432
2004-378
2005-542
2006-839

The numbers recorded are the total number of finishers officially recorded through the available years of Pete’s record keeping. Some of the earlier years saw both a 5k and the 10 mile distance noted, and recent years total the Migration plus the Stampede to produce that total. By any counting metric, this was a wonderful outcome for the club and for the community in terms of participation!

To Shanna, Jennifer, and their cadre of dedicated volunteers and to all the club members who gave of their time and energy to support the event with their work…a BIG THANK YOU.

FIRST CHIP appears to be Ed Randolph with a 3rd in the 30-34 division and a time of 60:57 with first FEMALE CHIP for Mary Coordt winning the 35-39 age division with her 63:20.

Further distinguished female Chip performances included Susan Frazier 2nd in the under 14 division, Lauren Eisenbud with a 2nd in the 20-24 division. We “adopt” Lauren as she is the youngest daughter of legendary Chip, Elliot Eisenbud, who as Race Director of this event some 24 years ago sited it at Rio Americano High School and set the first version of the course from that venue. Elliot also finished the migration division of the event this year!

Jenny Hitchings was 2nd in the 40-44 division with a solid 65:57 and Chris Iwahashi was 3rd in the women's’ 50-54 group. WINNING the 60-64 division was super steady Chippette Barbara Elia with Cynci Calvin 3rd in that group.

On the age division male side, Nathan Paddeck and Jerune Keukenkamp duked it out in the under 14 age group with Nathan taking the first in 62:30 to Jerune’s 65:31. Kal Lowden was 2nd in the 30-34 group, and High Dunger, John Blue, pulled out a 3rd in the highly competitive men’s 40-44 division with a 61:17 over fast starting John Nichols who arrived marginally later in 62:12.

Chris Enfante produced a solid 3rd in the men’s 50-54 category with a wonderful 67:47 while Ernie Takahashi barely missed breaking 70 minutes at 70:11 for 2nd in the 60-64 group and Gordon Hall took home a 3rd place award for the over 70 age division.

Congratulations to ALL participants and ALL VOLUNTEERS; it was a wonderful morning in Sacramento fitness!

Coming Paso Robles 10k and in October….Humboldt Half-Marathon!

Are YOU planning on a “marathon” in the Fall?

IF you are among the many Bison planning on a Fall marathon (Chicago, NYC, CIM, etc.), then your training should now be in a highly programmatic state. You MUST have two elements in your training NOW to make that marathon less traumatic on “race” day:

1. Long runs….You should have AT LEAST 6 long runs of 18 miles to….30 miles in the 16 weeks of buildup to your goal marathon. IF you are a male runner who weighs 170 pounds or more…then you really MUST be doing at least two (2) of those long runs of 26-30 miles.

2. Tempo runs…IF you are “time hopeful,” then you must also be increasing your running efficiency, and tempo runs are THE BEST venue for that improvement. The tempo runs done at least once and perhaps even TWICE a week should work up to 10 to even 12 miles of distance done at a pace just a bit FASTER than goal marathon pace. For example, if you are hoping to run a 3:30 marathon on race day, your tempo runs should be done at or just under 7:30/mile pace, and if your goal for the marathon is a “sub 3 hour” marathon then your tempo runs need to be at about 6:30/mile pace.

The metaphor of marathon preparation being like constructing a building works here so that without the core building elements….the building will simply collapse, and with strong building elements, then your construction will stand the “challenge of the elements.”

YOU CHOOSE.